Recent studies regarding search engine marketing conversion, have shown that many companies are still neglecting their landing pages. For search engine marketing, in particular advertisements via search engines, this can still be understood: many organisations after all do their own search engine advertising and doing so often only look at the advertisements themselves. However, the problem is not only restricted to DIY SEA marketers. Search engine marketers, just like e-mail marketers and other online marketing “specialists” often still forget the importance of the landing page in the conversion process.

In this post you find three tips for looking at your landing page(s) differently and also to improve the conversion: from the user experience viewpoint.

1) A landing page is more than just a web page

Many marketers see a landing page as an ordinary web page with some extras. These  are then in most cases a continuation of the message from the referring link, irrespective of the channel. Definitely in some search engine marketing campaigns, this does not even happen and businesses often still refer to the home page. Rather than looking at the channels, links and pages, one should look at conversion as a chain of experiences that lead to more experiences and actions. Therefore, think of your landing page in terms of the user and conversion experience. Creating a conversion path is much more than creating one or more pages and a consistent and purposeful experience with various scenarios is crucial.  

2) Offer relevant options

A conversion is almost never direct. And often one landing page is just not enough; one should offer choices to people who need other conversion routes and paths to be able to reach their objective. Once again experience, the conversion path and customer oriented thinking are central. Naturally it is also not good to offer too many choices as the user experience should also remain simple (see further on) and you should try to “guide” people. Therefore, give a wide enough range of choices without drowning the customer in them: you do not need conversion paths with high “bounces”. Too many choices distract the surfers from the main objective. Instead of placing everything on one page, it is better to keep things simple by offer a few simple choices: again, remember the user experience.

3) Keep it simple: provide clarity

Everyone knows the rule “Keep It Simple and Stupid” (KISS). A person that ends up on a landing page should not have to think of too many things. Clicking a link is after all a decision that is made in a very short time and people do not spend hours thinking before clicking a link. In short: the promise is in the referring link but since the click happens in an impulse of a fraction of a second, the landing page is actually even more important. Simplicity and clarity are essential. Because, just as clicking a text ad or email link occurs in a faction of a second, people leave landing pages just as quickly. Simplicity, relevant choices and clarity all ensure a better conversion. Here also, always think of the user experience!